9th Sunday – Holy Trinity
The mystery of Holy Trinity- Three persons and one God
A boy is writing a paper on childbirth and asks his parents, "How was I born?"
His mother awkwardly answers, "The stork brought you."
"Oh," says the boy. "Well, how were you and Daddy born?"
"Oh, the stork brought us, too, and Grandpa and Grandma."
The boy begins his paper, "This report has been very difficult to write due to the fact that there hasn't been a natural childbirth in my family for three generations. It is a mystery to me.”
Many have responded to me Holy Trinity as a Mystery.
Is it just a mystery beyond our comprehension? How do we understand the dogma about the Trinity?
Today, as we celebrate the feast of the Trinity – God as three persons yet one God.
I guess one of the most inspiring and interesting stories of the Trinity comes from St. Patrick, when in front of the pagan high priests and the Irish people he explained the Trinity by example of the Shamrock. "One little stem, three leaves. The three leaves are intricately connected to the stem and the stem to the three leaves." You cannot have a Shamrock without the three leaves and one stem. We cannot have Trinity without the three persons in one God.
Importance in Christian life: 1) All prayers in the Church begin in the name of the Holy Trinity and end glorifying the Trinity.
2) All sacraments are administered (we are baptized, confirmed, anointed) in the Holy Trinity’s Name.
3) Church bells ring thrice inviting us to remember and pray to the Holy Trinity.
4) We bless ourselves and the priest blesses us in the name of the Holy Trinity.
How do we understand the trinity – three persons and one God! This is difficult for us to comprehend. However, I will make three observations points in this regard.
First, human beings cannot fully comprehend God. In fact, the more we think we know God the deeper the divine mystery becomes. All we can do is use analogies to understand the mystery that God is. For example, C.S. Lewis used the analogy of a three dimensional picture to explain the Trinity. If we draw a line on a piece of paper it becomes a one-dimensional picture. You can make that line a square if you add length and breadth to it. Now, it is a two dimensional picture but the same square. Make the square into a cube, by adding two more lines in such a way that now there is depth in the picture, which is the third dimension. So now there is one image but three dimensions. Trinity, according to C.S. Lewis is like that - three persons yet one God. The feast of the Trinity is an invitation to enter into the depths of God. We see an example of that in today’s first reading. The wisdom of God speaks to the author and reveals God to him. He becomes aware of the richness and depths of spiritual realities. He becomes aware of Gods’ wisdom in creation. Awareness of such realities happen in prayer. And what I mean by prayer is not merely saying our morning and night prayers, but sitting in silence and discovering the Triune God who is within us. By prayer I mean developing a deep personal relationship with God, deeper than any human relationship. And as we do that, God takes us deeper and deeper into the mystery of his being. God invites us today to enter into his very life.
Second, the things we do know about God is known not because of human ingenuity but God’s revelation. We know that God has created us and revealed himself to us. Thus, we know God as our creator, our redeemer, and our destiny. Thus, we know God as Trinity because Jesus revealed that to us, as we heard in the gospel reading. If as the first reading tells us, God is our Creator then, then we can only know ourselves if we know God. This happened to me. I still remember my growing up years when I was trying to find myself. I did not like myself, I thought I was useless, not good enough to be loved; I was not talented, and could hardly say two sentences without stammering. And then I discovered a God who loved me unconditionally. It was this discovery that changed my life. The more I got to know God, the more I got to know myself. The more I discovered God the more I found myself. My vocation stems from this knowledge of God. I am a priest today not because of who I am but because of who God is. As St. Paul says in today’s second reading, hope can only come when we know that the love of God has been poured into our hearts. We can only know the meaning of our lives, our destiny, and our purpose if we know God.
Third, one day we shall see God face to face. And then we shall know God.
The practical implication of the feast of the Trinity is that God has revealed himself to us as community – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The relationship between the community of persons is a model for our relationships. Relationships break to the extent that either of the partners in a relation fails to genuinely respect, love, honor, commit oneself to the relationship. In the work of our redemption, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit had their own roles to play and they did so in fidelity, love, and obedience. The feast of the Trinity should lead us to recommit ourselves to our relationships. Let us pray for the difficult relationships in our lives.
Life messages:
1) Let us respect ourselves and others because every one is the temple of the Holy Spirit where all the three Persons of the Holy Trinity abide.
2) Let us have the firm conviction that the Trinitarian God abides in us and He is the source of our hope, courage and strength and our final destination.
3) Let us practice the Trinitarian relationship of love and unity in the family relationships of father, mother and children because by baptism we become children of God and members of God’s Trinitarian family.
4) Let us practice the I–God–my neighbor vertical and horizontal Trinitarian relationship in society by loving God living in others.
The climax of every Eucharist is the doxology. “Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor are yours almighty Father, forever and ever Amen. It is a Trinitarian prayer of praise. In fact, every Eucharist is a celebration of the Trinity – Jesus offering his sacrifice to the Father made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us today, lose ourselves in this mystery. Amen.
